What do you want in a fantasy setting?

[Psion]

Doubt it, the guys at WW want to hold on to creative control. Besides let's face it, this world IS MUCH cooler now that the WotC people aren't involved.

[Tangent]
So, Nightfall, what do you think of the Ghelspad hardbound?

 

[Pyske]

Just a guess: I strongly suspect that the best settings will be the ones with the strongest "who are the heroes" section, with the world written around the (archetypal) heroes.

. . . . . . . -- Eric

 

[Zappo]

Just a guess: I strongly suspect that the best settings will be the ones with the strongest "who are the heroes" section, with the world written around the (archetypal) heroes.

Why?

BTW, if someone is interested, the world I'm using right now, besides Planescape, is a Krynn where chaos has been freed, destroying a good part of Ansalon; the main dragonarmies have been destroyed and the solamnics have taken a nasty hit and are using all their forces to defend the borders from the countless monsters that chaos has has released. The rest of the nations are either being overrun by monsters or waiting for that to happen. It's not a nice place. There's not much of Dragonlance left in there beyond geography, come to think of it, but I don't think I could submit it.

 

[Desdichado]

I find it interesting that the 1-pager template doesn't actually ask for you to describe your setting per se, instead focusing on the heroes and villains and what's different. That's an interesting angle to this whole thing.

 

[Pyske]

Zappo:

There are a variety of reasons. Settings tend to be tighter / better written when driven by the central conflict, and in an RPG, there is a rather large market segment who want the PCs (aka heroes) to be central to the conflict. Similarly, novels work best with an archetypal character that people can identify with.

Player / GM buy in will be a big selling factor in a setting (er, duh, I know), and a lot of casual gamers aren't willing to explore settings much beyond "what do I get to be?"

Heroes & villains also define the dynamic parts of the setting (usually). Thus they provide some idea of the lifespan of the setting, degree of metaplot, and how hard it is to run a non-canon setting.

Hero archetypes will also tend to provide a window into the power level of the world, and will demonstrate how well a setting meshes with the PHB... a major point, since I very much doubt WotC is looking to replace it.

Any particular reason you disagree (if you do)?

. . . . . . . -- Eric

 

[hong]

I want a setting where magic has a real price. I want a gnome-free setting. I want conspiracies, wars, famine, tragedies. I want a world of dark grittiness, where adventurers can make a difference, for a while, but where dreams of actually banishing the darkness are futile. Mud. Dirt. Treachery.

Big 70s hairstyles.

And then I want something *really* bad to happen....

The gnomes come back....

 

[apsuman]

ohohohohoho!

I just had and idea!

I was going to share it but I like it soooo much I think I am reserving it for my setting...

daggnabbit! I thought it was good too, and I wanted to share....


g!

 

[cybernetic]

on second thought....i've deleted my post..cause I wanna reserve the idea for myself..